The Orlando Magic is playing like a team that will settle for nothing
less than its first N.B.A. championship.

Vince Carter
scored 22 points to lead another dominating performance by the Magic,
which finished off its second straight playoff sweep with a 98-84
victory over the Hawks on Monday night in Atlanta.

Orlando won the four games by an average of 25 points —blowouts would
not have been expected in a matchup between the teams that finished
second and third in the Eastern Conference.

The Magic, which lost to the Lakers in last year’s N.B.A. finals, is playing
better than anyone at the most important time of the season. Orlando has
won 14 in a row — the last eight in the playoffs — and 28 of 31 games.

Orlando barely broke a sweat against the Hawks, and Game 4 was more of
the same. Atlanta held Dwight
Howard to 13 points and 8 rebounds, but the Magic had plenty of
other options. Jameer Nelson was unstoppable, baffling the Hawks with
his now-you-see-him, now-you-don’t quickness as the Magic raced out to a
quick lead in the first half. He finished with 16 points and 9 assists.
Rashard Lewis scored 17 points, knocking down four 3-pointers.

The Hawks star Joe Johnson finished off a miserable series by scoring
only 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting from the field.

LAKERS SWEEP JAZZKobe Bryant
scored 32 points, Pau Gasol added 33 points and 14 rebounds, and
visiting Los Angeles completed a four-game sweep of Utah with a 111-96
victory, advancing to the Western Conference finals for the third
straight year.

The Lakers quickly ended the Jazz’s hopes of extending the series by
pulling ahead by 22 in the second quarter. Utah got within 5 in the
third but could not sustain the comeback against the defending N.B.A.
champion Lakers, who made very few mistakes and did not give the Jazz
many chances to rally.

Los Angeles had just six turnovers and made 29 of 36 free throws while
knocking Utah out of the playoffs for the third straight year. The
Lakers are off until hosting the Phoenix
Suns next Monday in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. CONTINUE READING...

May 05, 2010

The San Francisco Police Department will close its scandal-marred
drug lab permanently and use outside testers to analyze narcotics
evidence, Police Chief George Gascón said Wednesday.

"We have determined that we would be better served" by having
independent laboratories test seized substances to determine if they are
drugs, Gascón said at a news conference.

That will enable the Police Department's crime lab at Hunters Point
to focus on testing of weapons and DNA evidence, areas that are "quite
frankly of greater importance to our crime-fighting efforts," Gascón
said.

The department shut down the drug analysis section of the crime lab
March 9 amid an investigation into whether now-retired technician
Deborah Madden skimmed powdered cocaine and OxyContin evidence.

Prosecutors have dismissed more than 600 cases since the scandal
broke. Madden, 60, has not been charged with a crime in connection with
the case, but a police investigation is under way.

Police supervision

Gascón said the drug testing done by private labs would be conducted
under "our supervision." The Police Department still would be
responsible for ensuring that the lab work meets legal standards.

"We will still control that process," the chief said.

The drug analysis section was already a headache for the Police
Department even before the narcotics-skimming scandal became known. It
was down to two civilian police technicians before Madden left in
December, and outside auditors found that the section was not properly
supervised, evidence was not well secured and problems with its scales
were not being documented correctly.

The chief said an outside lab can perform testing for about $100 per
sample. By having police officers themselves do some preliminary tests,
Gascón believes that the 14,000 tests that the drug analysis section had
performed annually an be cut to around 4,000 at outside labs.

Gascón said the preliminary tests that officers have already started
doing are accepted by prosecutors to support the filing of charges.

"It's a more strategic approach to what we test," said Assistant
Chief Jeff Godown, whom Gascón directed in March to oversee the crime
lab.

His
amazing new single "Diary" (audio attached) was was mixed
by Grammy winner Manny Marroquin (Usher, Alicia Keys) and he is
currently working with producer Alex Cantrall (Fantasia, Dru
Hill, JoJo) for his full-length album dropping later this
year on indie label Eleventh Records.

It's hard to understand why basketball superstar Kobe Bryant signed off on
an all-white fashion spread in the LA
Times—one that would see him sporting an American Apparel
headband beneath a Quaker-licious white hat, no less. But the gods of
unintentional humor have smiled on us, thankfully, and now Kobe's the
star of a terrific new photoshop meme.Kobe posed in a series of fashion-forward pieces by the likes of Kris
Van Assche and Rick Owens
at Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel last month,
apparently unfettered by forethought. And now he's a star! Deadspin
has rounded up some of the best
photoshop humor inspired by Kobe's high fashion moment. It's a
whole lot funnier than Tony Parker's French rap album.

May 01, 2010

LAS VEGAS(AP) —Floyd Mayweather Jr. put on a virtuoso display of boxing skill in an unanimous decision over Sugar Shane Mosley on Saturday night, keeping his perfect record intact.Mayweather gave a masterful effort in his most dangerous fight in several years against the 38-year-old Mosley, who put Mayweather on his heels with several rocking punches in the second round. Mayweather regained his composure and thoroughly outboxed the veteran champion.Mosley didn’t have the power or precision to follow up his dynamic second round, losing in his first fight since stopping Antonio Margarito in January 2009.Mayweather accepted this fight when negotiations with Manny Pacquiao broke down over Mayweather’s drug-testing demands. He could fight Pacquiao later this year.

September 2012

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